Why Christians Don't Understand Non-Christians

ArGee | 1/3/01 | ArGee

[jethropalerobber]

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image..."

that's a fair response, i just tend to feel it was the other way around.

[L,TOWM]

See #700...

[Magician]

Re: All good men go to heaven.

If a Jew believes in an after life (not all Jews do - particularly the partially secular ones) the above belief is universal including the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. My religiously well educated Orthodox son-in-law believes this, as I do (I attend a Reform synagogue), and I'll ask him where the source of this belief lies. My guess that it comes from the Talmud, which includes the rabbinical commentaries on the Bible.

By the way, unless one knows what is in the Talmud, which is twenty times the length of of the Holy Scriptures, one is hardly equipped to challenge the origin or validity of most Jewish religious beliefs.

[Fish out of Water]

I think this analogy is flawed. You need to throw in a few more ingredients. Continue with the rich man providing the dinner but instead of people demanding to enter through the door of their choice, you have groups running around saying follow me to the banquet. When you try to follow your would be guides you end up running all over town but never arriving at the banquet, then your guides proclaim that you need to tithe some of your money in order to demonstrate to the rich man your goodwill. When you look closer you find that those who promised to show you the way were leading you around for their own benefit and spending the tithes for their own enrichment. After dealing with the hypocrites that pretend to speak for the rich man and never seeing the banquet, you begin to wonder if there really is a banquet or if the rich man is anything more than a figment of someone’s imagination.

[LuvItOrLeaveIt]

Which denies a person the right to believe in what he has experienced, unless he can verify that he experienced it. Sorry, but your materialism denies the evidence of the senses.

Wrong again. They have every right to believe whatever they want to believe. Just because somebody tells me they had a personal experience where they "saw" the "Great Sky Fairy" does not make it true, no matter how much they [want to] believe it. Sorry, but you have presented no evidence, only hyperbole.

After that, people who hear the story have a responsibility to judge it, based on what they know about the teller -- his closeness to the person who originally experienced it, his reputation for truth, etc. It may not be proof, but it is evidence.

Incredible claims require incredible evidence to back them up. I would not care who told me about "The Great Sky Fairy", I would need more than anybody's testimony, regardless of who that "anybody" is, to accept that claim.

[ArGee]

May the Lord visit your heart and reveal Himself to you in a mighty way.

Father, I echo the prayer of Boxford for LuvItOrLeaveIt. May it be so quickly. Amen.

Shalom.

[stuartcr]

Just an observation but, it would appear to me that if people seek, but do not end up thinking as you do, then they didn't seek hard enough.

[LuvItOrLeaveIt]

Father, I echo the prayer of Boxford for LuvItOrLeaveIt. May it be so quickly. Amen.

I've just proven one of your statements wrong. This prayer has not been answered.

[wai-ming]

And, of course, if I love someone, I will tell them of the goodness of the feast, the excellence of the wine, and the divinity of the fellowship.

And what about people who were unlucky enough to live at a time when there were no invitations sent out?

I'm talking about my ancestors who never heard a word about Christ or the "good news" of the gospel. According to some Christians, my ancestors will be consigned to hell, because they didn't "profess a belief in Christ." They weren't even given a chance to accept or reject. Why are they being excluded?

I'm sorry, but isn't that kinda unfair? Even if I make it to the feast, I cannot celebrate the "divinity of the fellowship" with those I love, because they won't be there.

[vrwinger]

But more, how the lost blame G-d for holding to His simple plan of salvation rather than accepting their plan as superior...

Yes, very well said... I'm reminded of Matthew 7:14 - "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." Not gates, but gate. Singular. This was an excellect thread...

I'm not sure what the record is, but more than 700 replies has to be close to a FR record??

[nattyman]

Great story. Very simple and profound. Many are saying that it doesn't cover all of the bases, but I don't think that you meant for it to.

I have read many posts on this thread of people complaining that they don't agree with having to take the front entrance to the banquet, or "why can't an omnipotent God just take everyone in?" What they don't understand is that not only is Jesus "The Way" into the banquet but he is the banquet and the food itself. It is like someone saying that they want to go swimming without getting wet.

Ultimately the definition of Heaven is eternal fellowship with God. I know that for most unbelievers that does not sound real great, but when we begin to understand the true greatness of God (which we never fully will in this life) we can begin to understand why Jesus is The Way. We cannot have fellowship with God (i.e. heaven) and reject Him at the same time. Just as when you go swimming you are going to get wet.

[ArGee]

In order for you to understand how the non-christian feels, you merely have to be willing to do a little thought exercise. Just imagine if your essay was written by a buddhist, and the banquet was called "nirvana" and not "salvation".

I have not named the banquet. In the names you have given, you suggest the banquet is an after-death banquet.

The banquet is a life banquet. I am eating of it now. The food is good. The wine is excellent. The fellowship is divine!

Come to the Table.

Shalom.

[OWK]

You've refused to accept God's conditions and definitions, and then you've made your own set instead.

I have refused to accept the existence of God, and therefore have no choice but to make my own set.

[Syene]

Well, Elsie, it's like this. The title of this article is amusingly backwards. We understand Christians very well. It is you who refuse to understand yourselves or us, but that's okay because it isn't one of the Commandments. So NOBODY gets it right, but all G-d requires from us is that we never stop trying to be the best *I* we can possibly be. I don't know why you stopped in the middle of the road and explored none of the beauty without, but it is to your detriment that you were taught never to question or think for youself.
That said, there is no condemnation here. I honestly believe that righteous Christians and righteous Jews must ineveitably devide to stick very close together. We are about to have an all out frontal assault from the very far left that will test us in ways we have not been tested before. It will require Conservatives of every stripe, ethnicity, and religion to become the army that defeats them at their own game. It won't happen if we are tearing at each others' throats.

[ArGee]

You seem to be in it for the long haul, whereas ArGee gave up trying to answer all the responses long ago.

I hope by now you know me better.

Shalom.

[stuartcr]

If it was part of a plan, where does this free-will stuff come in?
I guess some people were lucky enough to get eaten so love could be expressed?
Still have a hard time understanding something that could compel someone to let themselves get eaten, but I guess missing the banquet would be compelling enough for you?

[ArGee]

But they never returned and no one really knew (except by faith) that the banquet ever happened.

I am at the banquet now. The food is good. The wine is excellent. The fellowship is divine.

Come to the Table.

Shalom.

[stuartcr]

see #706

[gdani]

Father, I echo the prayer of Boxford for LuvItOrLeaveIt. May it be so quickly. Amen

Practicing your piety in public?

[mac_truck]

Excellent thread.

Why assume that to look is to see?